HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

We hope this week you are allowing the truth to sink in that the value of your kids’ lives is going to be best spoken, taught, expressed, and passed on by you. You will verbally and non-verbally transfer that spiritual life dynamic to your kids.

One of the most crucial truths you must somehow help your kids to accept is God’s unconditional love and grace. So many people come to believe that salvation is somehow up to them through performance, good works, or even thinking they have the ability to get to Heaven on their own—the “but I’m a good person so why wouldn’t God let me into Heaven.” The reality of sin creating an unreachable chasm between us and God is important to understand, but also the reality of a God who created a solution for that divide by the sacrificing His Son for us is equally as important.

Listen to how Jesus explained the reality of salvation:

Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them! So Jesus told them this story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.” (Luke 15:1-10 NLT)

If it was important to Jesus to tell stories to help us understand how God feels about saving us, then it is also important to pass those on, as well as the truths of His great love and grace, to our children. People turning their lives to Jesus is the source of joy in Heaven. What a beautiful picture to paint for our kids.

Let’s pray: “Father, thank You for salvation, rescue, redemption, and Your amazing love and grace. Thank You that I have been found. I want my children to know what that means and what that feels like—to be found and held by You. As above, so below.”